Friday, December 5, 2008

Website of the Week: Astronomy Picture of the Day

Itinerant Cryptographer here, filling in for a tired Mama Joules. Monday, the sky had a real treat for anyone who looked up at it--the crescent moon, Jupiter, and Venus were all close together in the sky. In some places, the moon passed in front of Venus, blocking it from view for awhile.

Did you miss seeing this? Well, this week's website of the week has a lovely photo of that, as well as many other things you wish you'd seen in the night sky. Check out NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day, a source of some amazing, beautiful, and interesting pictures, each with commentary by an astronomer. Don't miss the video footage of the fireball in the sky from Canada!

4 comments:

Space web sites ( including Nasa's) are still stuck in the old 2-D HTML mode. I thought you might like know about a new 3-D way to view Nasa's Astronomy Picture of the Day at :

http://secondlife.mitsi.com/apod

This front-end tool lets you chose among 6 different modern looks and get a week's view at a time.

Space always has spinoffs. You can apply it to your old boring Flickr pages, too, and email the link to your pictures to your friends or embed it on your own web pages. You can also use it inside your web profile in the popular game Second Life, at http://secondlife.mitsi.com/flickr. I hope to bring a some of their 16 million registered users into studying space ... I've been studying it for so long my head is full of it :-)

New Website for Kids: MEET ME AT THE CORNER Astronomy Visit to Palomar ObservatoryI am a children's author with a new website for kids called MEET ME AT THE CORNER (www.meetmeatthecorner.org), a series of free kid-friendly video podcasts for kids.

Geared to children ages 7-12, MeetMeAtTheCorner.org is a dynamic, interactive site, which encourages individual expression and participation through video submissions from children worldwide. Through these video pod casts, the site creates a community of children who learn the art of self-expression and storytelling through video. The site is free of charge.

MeetMeAtTheCorner.org currently offers more than 40 three- to four- minute episodes. Recent additions include interviews with famous artists and writers, trips to a variety of New York City historic and cultural landmarks, and introductions to unusual hobbies. New trips are added every three weeks.

I thought your readers might enjoy the current episode featuring astronomer Dennis Mammana and a virtual field trip to the Paolomar Observatory. The visit celebrates 2009 The International Year of Astronomy.

Family-Friendly Science

Everyone starts out a scientist. When a small child asks "Why is the sky blue?" or "How do birds fly?", that is the start of scientific inquiry. Too often, science is taught in a way that is dull or exclusionary. I believe that science belongs to everyone.

Mama Joules

Science lover, Poet, Mom

I am a freelance writer, Maryland Master Naturalist, and poet with a professional and educational background in the environmental sciences.

I was carbon neutral for a day!

In December 2008, Brighter Planet donated one day's worth of carbon offsets in my name.

Cool Things I've Seen: Moreton Bay fig trees, Allerton Garden, Kauai

These trees were featured in the movie Jurassic Park. Their roots are taller than I am!

Fun Photos

Dr. Mom took this one. It makes us laugh!

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